Kenya’s mountains of plastic bags might not seem central to oil’s grand narrative, but they are. Last week, the East African country banned almost everything about them: making them, importing them, selling them, using them, with penalties of up to four years in jail or fines up to $38,000.

This type of prohibition carries a warning for an oil business that’s depending on petrochemicals — and the plastics made from them — to pick up the slack when we all switch from gas guzzlers to electric cars. Saudi Aramco is betting its future on petrochemicals. The International Energy Agency thinks they’ll drive crude sales for decades, accounting for 44 percent of oil demand growth between 2015 and 2040.

We can eliminate fossil fuel usage on our own without our federal government simply in this way by cutting down on products that require them. No plastic, electric cars, they’ll put a hurting on an industry that is archaic and resistant to change and improvements.

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Food for Thought:

Based on 2016 IMF Report the fossil fuel industry extracted $700B (billion) in annual tax payer subsidies. They paid $117 million in campaign contributions and they have 720 lobbyists in Washington, D.C. SOURCE